Makati City, Philippines

[slang]

About a week ago our bill appeard at our doorstep. It looked like our bill anyway, until we looked at it.

It was actually the neighbor's bill and less than half of our total bill. I thought surely that someone else had received our bill and would be happy to return it, being much more than the normal bill here.

It didnt happen.

We asked here and asked there, "did you get our electric bill ?" but no one had it.

That's sort of a problem here if you don't have the bill because the convenient way to pay the bill is at one of the "bill pay" centers. If you do not have the original bill there's no way for them to tie into the system and record your payment.

I don't believe that mailing the bill in is an option or if it is possible if it's just not popular as going to the payment centers.

Anyway.....

If we didnt get the bill this month by some mysterious hiccup in the routine, then could we expect to receive one the month after? How about the month after that?

It annoyed me that everyone else in Makati seemed to get their bill but ours was no where to be found.

We ended up going all the way into the city to Meralco to pay it at the office since that's the only place that paying without a paper bill is possible.

A copy was provided to us and it ended up being a minor pain in the ass.

The original showed up a few days after without explaination.

The one line of this bill that caught my eye was the "system loss" line with the figure of P142.98 or 8.8% of the total bill.

It is also true that the KwPhr is $.19, a bit high for US rates.